I am very glad that some of our readers did recognize Prof. Jaganath Azad in our recent ATP Quiz. I am not surprised that others did not. As I had mentioned in the post, I would not have done so had it not been for a wonderful post by Zakintosh on his blog.

I am ashamed that until recently I did not know who Jagan Nath Azad was, or what he did. I am glad that I now know. I hope you are too.

First, the basics: Jagannath Azad (1918-2004) was an Urdu poet, a Punjabi Hindu, and a scholar of Iqbal’s poetry who, on the direct invitation of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, wrote Pakistan’s first national anthem, which remained Pakistan’s official anthem for its first year-and-half and whose first lines were as follows:

Jagan Nath Azad was born in 1918 in Isa Khel in the Punjab (later of Atta Ullah Khan Eesakhelvi fame), he studied at Gordon College in Rawalpindi, and the University of the Punjab in Lahore. At the time of partition in 1947, he was a journalist and a poet living in Lahore. Mr.Â Jinnah asked him to write a new national anthem for Pakistan. The anthem was used for 18 months, until it was replaced (after Mr. Jinnah’s death). Some time after writing the national anthem, he migrated to India, where from 1977 to 1980 he was a Professor of Urdu and head of Urdu department at the Unversity of Jammu. Prof. Azad was a noted authority on the works of Dr. Allama Mohammad Iqbal. He was awarded the President of Pakistan’s gold medal for his services to Urdu literature.

After reading Zakintosh’s post on Prof. Azad, I tried to find out more about him. I could not find any lines to the original anthem beyond the ones he quoted (which are also quoted elsewhere), but I did find much interesting information, including this very interesting speech by him on India-Pakistan relations:

Days before his death last year, Azad recalled, in an interview, the circumstances under which he was asked by Jinnah to write Pakistanâ€™s national anthem: â€œIn August 1947, when mayhem had struck the whole subcontinent, I was in Lahore working in a literary newspaper.

All my relatives had left for India and for me to think of leaving Lahore was painful. My Muslim friends requested me to stay. On August 9, 1947, there was a message from Jinnah Sahib through one of my friends at Radio Pakistan Lahore. He told me â€˜Quaid-e-Azam wants you to write a national anthem for Pakistan.â€™â€

Why him? â€œThe answer to this question,â€ Azad said in the interview, â€œhas to be understood by recalling the inaugural speech of Jinnah Sahib as Pakistanâ€™s governor general. He said: “You will find that in the course of time, Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the state.”

I asked my friends why Jinnah Sahib wanted me to write the anthem. They confided in me that “the Quaid wanted the anthem to be written by an Urdu-knowing Hindu.” Through this, I believe Jinnah Sahib wanted to sow the roots of secularism in a Pakistan.”

But the real gems were to be found in a very interesting article about Prof. Jagannath Azad in Dawn, by Ashfaque Naqvi, written in June 2004. It really is worth reading in full:

I saw Tilok Chand Mehroom when still at school in Lahore and was greatly impressed by his personality. A tall, robust, figure, dressed in a long coat with a ‘lungi’, he had long whiskers. He looked every inch a Muslim, but I was told that he was a Hindu and headmaster of a school in Mianwali, the place to which he belonged. And then I read his poems which happened to be in our Urdu textbooks. One was about the pathetic condition of the last resting place of the Mughal empress, Nur Jahan. I still remember two of its touching lines:

Well, that was long before partition. Even in those days his son, Isakhel born, Jagan Nath Azad was counted among the prominent poets of the Punjab. It is not commonly known that after the establishment of Pakistan, the first national song (qaumi tarana as we like to call it) broadcast from Radio Pakistan was not by Hafeez Jallandhri or Faiz Ahmed Faiz but by a Hindu called Jagan Nath Azad. It ran like this:

I am grateful to Dr Syed Moeenur Rehman for sending me books which keep adding to my knowledge. It is never too late to learn, as they say. I knew a lot about Jagan Nath Azad but the book sent by him tells me much more about him. It is the thesis written by one of his students, Aasma Aziz, for her master’s in Urdu. Somehow, it has been printed and produced by Crescent House Publications of Jammu in Occupied Kashmir. It only deals with Jagan Nath Azad as a prose writer.

Third in line after the more famous Azads – Maulana Muhammad Hussain and Maulana Abul Kalam – Jagan Nath was born in 1918. After doing his MA in Persian from the Punjab University in 1944, he served in different capacities in some Urdu and English newspapers. He also remained assistant editor of the important Urdu journal, Adabi Dunya.

After serving for a while as a lecturer of Urdu at Lahore’s DAV College, he moved to Delhi after partition. Securing a job in the Press Information Department, he was posted to Srinagar. Offered the professorship of Urdu in the Jammu University, he moved there in 1977. After retirement, he continues to be there as professor emeritus for life.

Jagan Nath Azad has been attending mushairas and delivering lectures and has written about most of his foreign trips. However, while writing about Pakistan he never calls it a foreign country. Even Gen. Ziaul Haq told him that he should consider it to be his own country and come here whenever he felt like it. He openly accepts that the reception he receives in Pakistan is totally different from what he experiences in other countries. His love for Pakistan is evident from his verse:

Jagan Nath Azad has won several awards from Pakistan, India, Russia and other countries. For the naats composed by him, he was given the Seerat-i-Pak Award by Bradford Publications of UK. Not only that, Jagan Nath Azad has written a long poem condemning the destruction of the Babri Mosque. Says he:

The books authored by Jagan Nath Azad include some on literary criticism while about eleven, both in English and Urdu, are on Iqbal. It would be interesting to know that soon after partition, Iqbal was almost banned in India. It was only through the efforts of Jagan Nath Azad that Iqbal is as highly respected there today as Khusrau, Meer or Ghalib. Even in Pakistan, it was Jagan Nath Azad’s whisper into the ears of Gen Ziaul Haq that led to the establishment of the Iqbal Chair in the Punjab University.

Many Indians, like Iqbal Singh and Hira Lal Chopra, have done extensive work on Iqbal. Dr Chaman Lal Raina has gone to the extent of converting his verses into Hindi. On his part, Dr Rafiq Zakaria, former chancellor of the Urdu University in Aligarh, has written a full book under the title, Iqbal: The Poet and the Politician, in which he has expressed surprise why Iqbal is not revered in India.

It goes to the credit of Jagan Nath Azad that he has all along tried to emphasise the fact that great and durable poetry transcends all barriers of caste, creed and colour. Being a humanist, Iqbal’s poetry echoes the sentiments and feelings of humanity at large. There is no denying that he has championed the cause of the exploited and oppressed people of the world.

I hope you read the above in full. Even as I read it for the third time, I am amazed at much of what is written here.

After reading that – especially the verses, one was left wanting more. So, let me leave you with this video of Prof. Azad from a mushaira – including some remarks and verses about Pakistan:

I was pleased to see mention of one great man, almost forgotten in making history of Pakistan, Prof J N Azad. And I must thank you for keeping his name alive as the first person who wrote the national anthem of pakistan specially on the request of the Quaid.

While I was writing my section of national anthem in my website Pakistanpaedia some three years back, I also included his name to pay homage to him and keep the history as it happened and not as so many of us know otherwise.

Amazing article. I did know that present anthem was not Pakistan’s first anthem but never heard about Prof. Jagan Nath Azad. Another interesting interview of his I found here.

Quaid e Azam tried his best to make a country in which people will live without religious and ethnic discrimination. Unfortunately, Pakistan is still struggling ‘coz of these two factors. Ethnic discrimination made it cry once and religious extremism is playing its part now. Sad.

Thanks again for sharing real legends.

BTW, does anyone else here think that present anthem is more of martial nature? IMHO, its very well balanced anthem.

Naeem says:

June 5th, 2009 6:53 am

What a great post. How informative. Thank you for educating us on our history. I am very glad that Pakistan did honor him with a medal. Whatever his final choice, his love for Pakistan still is there as we can see in his poetry here.

Interesting! I never knew that there was also another, the first, anthem of Pakistan, and that it was written by a Hindu poet. It clearly shows that Jinnah did not look at things through the Islamic prism, as we are made to believe by the current crop of “maulanas” and some of the “media mujahideen”.

By the way, even the current Pakistani anthem is devoid of any religious vocabulary. In fact, it clearly says at one place that system of governance of Pakistan (Pak sarzameen ka nizam) will be the strength and brotherhood of its people . It did not occur to anyone then to insert “sharia” or whatever in the anthem. Obviously, the sharia bug bit Pakistan much later.

Thank you for digging this out for us. I knew Prof. Jagan Nath Azad as an Urdu literary person but did not know that he wrote the first National Anthem for Pakistan. Thank you for sharing the forgotten history.

Maarif Sohail says:

June 6th, 2009 1:09 am

I wonder if people are aware of the fact that Prof. Jagan Naath Azad Sahab had married a Muslim lady and apparently reverted to Islam.

AftaabAnsari says:

June 6th, 2009 1:28 am

Maarif, where on earth did you get the information that Prof. Azad converted to Islam?
I’m certain that’s not true – Azad died a Hindu.
His wife’s name was Bimla, and his son is Adarsh – it’s a Hindu family.

Please source your statements properly. Also, the obvious – why did he leave Pakistan unless he had to because of anti-Hindu violence in 1947-48?

AftaabAnsari says:

June 6th, 2009 1:43 am

My fellow Pakistanis,

This wonderful posting by Adilsaab is a poignant reminder to us all to cherish the contributions of our fellow Pakistanis, Muslim or otherwise.

Jinnah’s secular vision has been laid waste by the military-mullah complex. Historians will debate what he wanted (secular/theocratic), but the fact is he was simply too sick and exhausted to implement whatever his vision was.

Ultimately, it’s up to us to create a secular state that does not hang a sword over the necks of Hindus and Christians by means of the blasphemy laws. Zardari is too weak to do this, Nawaz never will and Musharraf couldn’t.

Adilsaab, please

1. Highlight in a posting sometime the need for us to reconstruct the Pakistani Hindu temples demolished in ’92 as a reaction to the Babri crime across the border.

2. Highlight in a posting sometime the need for
us to IMMEDIATELY REMOVE the derogatory references to Hindus is Pakistani textbooks – this truly makes me ashamed of my country’s state-supported bigotry.

Aftaab
Proud Pakistani

Mohammed Hassanali says:

June 6th, 2009 4:08 am

I wonder when the time will come when Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to Muslims, ofcourse not in terms of faith but in terms of one nation, not just in Pakistan but also in India and Bangladesh.
When that day comes (and I am sure that day will come even in Bangladesh AND Pakistan and hopefully sooner than later) we the people of Indian Sub-continent will be in a commanding position to lead the world.

Rizwan Khan says:

June 6th, 2009 4:16 am

“Also, the obvious – why did he leave Pakistan unless he had to because of anti-Hindu violence in 1947-48?”

In fact if you listen to the video link in the article Prof. Jagannath himself has clarified this point. He says that twice he came back to Pakistan and was advised to return to India by his well wishers because they were afraid for his life in Pakistan.

A.Z. Kifayat says:

June 6th, 2009 11:14 am

I am very glad to see this story at this site. You are doing good work by highlighting this.

I have had pleasure of meeting Prof. Azad a few times before he died during mushairas in the gulf area. He was a delightful man. And he really loved Pakistan and Pakistanis. He had no bitterness at all. I did not speak to him much about the anthem but we had many conversations on his life.

First, he remained his own religion and this is nonsense about his converting. I do not know why anyone would like to spread that lie.

Second, He did not leave Pakistan under any danger. Many many people who migrated (including me) from one country to other did so many months and years after 1947 because once things settled we found where most of or families had decided to go, where work was, and so on and that is how decisions were made. He made clear to us in many conversations that he moved because many of his friends and family had decided to settle in India and so did he. Remember, for him and my own family also, we all had hoped that things will eventually settle and people in the two countries would move around more easily than they have.

I am very glad to see him being honored here. But please do not use a dead man to advance propaganda like in some comments. Thank you.

AftaabAnsari says:

June 6th, 2009 3:27 pm

A. Z.,

That’s wonderful that you met him!

Adilsaab/anyone else, can we PLEASE possibly get the full text of the anthem composed by Azadsaab?

I have searched long and hard but it’s unavailable anywhere online.

Aftaab
Proud Pakistani

Gorki says:

June 6th, 2009 3:40 pm

Like many readers, I did not know anything about Professor Azad either till a friend recently wrote about him to me in a private mail.

There has been much discussion lately in the press; on several South Asian blogs and in cyberspace whether Mr. Jinnah was a communalist or a secular person and what his stated and unstated vision was, for the nation of Pakistan.

His detractors both on the left and the right, dismiss his August 11th 1947 speech extolling a secular vision as nothing more than a speech. However, his actions such as deliberately asking a Hindu Pakistani to write the national anthem speaks louder than the words of his critics and also shows him not only as a secular person but also a man of a great vision. Indeed it is a tragedy of colossal proportions that Mr. Jinnah died so soon.

However, nations can survive a great deal of tragedy and bad luck provided it has two things; one, a national spirit that is truly derived from the vision of great men and two, people willing to dig deep to restore that vision even though tyrants may have attempted to bury that spirit deep.

Not being a Pakistani myself, I do not feel it is proper for me to name any names in the list of tyrants but certainly can count people like my friend (who wrote to me about Jagannath Azad) and Professor Najam as those kindred spirits who are currently engaged in restoring the Pakistan of Jinnah

Azad was himself a wonderful poet. Jagannath Azad didn’t embrace Islam, as a comment suggets. I think he got confused with Malik Ram.
—————————————————————–
As far as information about the first Tarana-e-Pakistan is concerned, it is not so little-known either. Those interested in Urdu literature are commonly aware about this fact.

At least Urdu literature is still not divided in India and Pakistan. However, the Urdu literature walas are perhaps not as net-savvy.

The literary magazines keep publishing ‘khusoosi goshas’ on writers of the past and such information also.

It’s not just Faiz or Faraz (or Insha) but poets like Iftikhar Arif or even those of the recent past like Irfan Sattar are the poets of entire Urdu world. Just like Indian poets Abdul Ahad Saaz, Unfortunately I don’t find literary Urdu magazines from Pakistan available online.

Neena says:

June 6th, 2009 9:25 pm

Thanks Adil for such an enlightening post.

Indscribe-you said Unfortunately I don

Syed Hasan Shahid Bukhari says:

June 7th, 2009 1:44 am

The Idea of a “Secular” Pakistan, I repeat, is the Negation of the very Ideals of Pakistan.

Because, Pakistan was created, for the Muslims of the British Ruled Indian Subcontinent…

Do you fail to understand that there would have been no sense in having a Separate home land for the Muslims… A Pakistan based on ethenic, economic, political, or geographic etc. differences with the Hindus.

We needed a separate homeland, because wof the Need of our Identity… Based in the world’s greatest Heritage.

AftaabAnsari says:

June 7th, 2009 1:56 am

So, Bukharisaab, a state for muslims must always = an Islamic state? God forbid. I am a secular person and believe in strict religion/state separation for our Pakistan.

In 1947 the situation was different; violence and destruction threatened to destroy “India”, as muslims and hindus indeed are two radically different groups with two different cultures and traditions.

We should model ourselves on Turkey, Indonesia or even – somewhat shamefully – BD. Secularism may not be a “negation” of your Zia-esque “Ideals” of Pakistan, but I believe we should look to the future and leave Sharia behind in the history where it belongs.

I really don’t know because I live in India. Until a few years back I often saw magazines like Tashkil, Aaj etc from Pakistan but no longer. Even the literary columns of major Pakistani newspapers don’t publish such columns.

In fact, I find a big disconnect between the cyber-savvy generation of Pakistan and the rest. Forget literature, even popular writings aren’t discussed much.

Like in India we hear so much about MA Rahat and Muhiuddin Nawab, but I don’t find even wikipedia pages on them or any proper articles on these writers.

Is it class difference–English speakers who occasionally love to hum a nazm or recall a couplet, and the Urdu speakers who read the digests, literary magazines and the papers.

The most encouraging thing about Pakistan is that it has such a huge Urdu-knowing populace. In India, the percentage of those who are able to read the Urdu script is declining.

Still, there are 25-30 major literary magazines published by individuals, state governments’ academies and publishing houses. I am sure there must be magazines dedicated solely to literature in Pakistan. However, they are probably not net-friendly and someone should help them in setting up websites for them.

AMIN GANI says:

June 8th, 2009 10:18 am

I am surprised,astonished and wonder after hearing ,listening and came to know about speech of mr jinnah in first session of our constitution assembly,nomination of a hindu schedule cast as our first law minister who also chaired the session.,also saw entire histery of pakistan,a thought comming to my mind that why pakistan was demanded and why lacs of people and unprecidental sacrifices given by muslims when we we were living since centuries in secular subcontinent amicably with other people of different faiths.I conclude that we muslims were cheated and leaders exploited Islam and still expliting .

Sameer says:

June 9th, 2009 10:25 am

Mr. Mohd. Hassanali,
It’s better to live with the reality and accept the fact that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are three different nations; have different cultures, language, accents or dialects. Indian muslims have different mindset and in their thinkings in comaprison to their counterparts in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. I am sure none of pakis are going to accept this openly but that will running away from the reality.

Dr Abdul jami khan says:

June 11th, 2009 10:38 am

Evolution/linguistics and Aryan-Semitic biblical racism and
India’s partition.
Dear all, We must look frwd because that is the reality but must learn from from past; British created “hindu’s hindi” and muslim’s urdu,based on scripts;and we all know all three scripts ,english,hindi/sanskrit,urdu/arabic originated by mesopotamian farmers some 6ooo yers ago; a well esablished fact;Also is well documented is the shared origin of indo-arabo-
european languages from africa and mideast farmers. These ideas in my book ” urdu/hindi an artificial divide –african
heritage–etc (reviewed in newspapers,tv shows) has changed
some hearts; British had concocted Indo-euro-aryan’s origin
from Noah’s son Japhet of bible ,now fully accepted as FICTIION;In fact “semitic/Aryan “delusion is the root of all the
human tragedies we have seen in past 2 00 years. We must
realise that
the indian culture is not hindu nor arabic one is islamic;they
evolved as secular earthy phenonmenon and later hyjacked by
priestly delusions/fundamentalism of,jewish,hindu and muslim
variety;Cultural history based on evolution can bind india again
; The current tragadies may be a silver lining for indo-pak
reorganisation and peace of heart/shared culture/shared future.

Adnan Ahmad says:

June 11th, 2009 11:17 am

It is a valid point that both Urdu and Hindi get labeled as the Hindu or Muslim languages whereas no one labels Tamil or Marathi or Sindhi as such. We are talking about changing people’s psyche and that may take generations to come.

Muhammad Obaidullah says:

August 13th, 2009 10:39 am

First of all I want to congratulate the author of this article the one in Dawn for such commendable work they have done. I was amazed that I din

Is it possible to post audio of first anthem of Pakistan by Jagan Nath Azad on this site ?

Sufyan says:

April 2nd, 2010 8:23 pm

What a personality. Thanks
Is it possible to get audio of first anthem of Pakistan by Dr. Jagan Nath Azad ?

Bin Ismail says:

April 2nd, 2010 11:37 pm

Let ALL THINGS PAKISTAN take the lead in revealing the entire text of the first National Anthem of Pakistan – the anthem to which Quaid-e Azam rose in respect. Radio Pakistan should be having a recording in its archives.

rao zafar iqbal says:

April 3rd, 2010 2:10 am

oh what a great anthem was this. can its audio be published on this site. thanks professor azad.

Nusrat Pasha says:

April 3rd, 2010 10:05 am

There’s no harm in having two anthems simultaneously. “Pak sarzameen shad baad”, because it has been our anthem for six decades, and “Aye sarzameen-e pak” because it was the first and original anthem, because it was written on the personal request of Quaid-e Azam and because this is the anthem that was played till the demise of the father of this nation.

The original anthem, should in any case be revived. A solution could be to have both anthems for separate occasions – but Quaid-e Azam’s legacy should not be allowed to fade away into oblivion.

haseeb says:

April 21st, 2010 4:58 am

We must revive this national anthem, even if in parallel to the current one.
it is more important because it is in URDU, i.e, our national language, whereas the current anthem is in Persian.

Bakhat has already given the link, in todays JANG, to an article by Dr. Safdar Mehmood.

I have revisited this post after reading the above said article and we all would appreciate if you repost this article with the latest and correct information.

It is really important for the credibility of this blog especially because the name of this blog has been mentioned in the abvoe article.

Looking forward to a repost on this subject.

Saad M. Waraich says:

June 6th, 2010 10:08 am

Interesting article, but unfortunately not properly researched and not true. There is a very comprehensive article by Dr. Safdar Mahmood in today’s Nawa-i-waqt and Jang of 6/6/2010 which refutes the above theory.

He has quoted three different and indenpendent sources that deny Prof. Azad ever meeting the Quaid. Moreover, there is no record in the GOP’s archives of Azad ever getting any sort of award.

Br
SMW

Sameer says:

June 6th, 2010 11:33 am

Dear Adil,
Kindly read article by Dr Safdar Mahmood in today’s Jang and do some search, and reply. Your and the website’s name too has been mentioned in it. Now, if you have something conncerete in this respect then plz bring it forward.

First I agree that of all our problems this is probably the least to get worked up about. Also, I think we are making too much of Safdar Mahmood, specially because this article from him really has no research or ‘facts’. This is an op-ed and that is all it is ‘opinion’. If he does have any evidence that the first anthem played was NOT by Azad then that is fine. but simply saying that he found nothing only means one thing: HE found nothing.

Jawad, this is not the way of scholars or seekers of truth. Dr Safdar Mahmood has quoted many historical references in his article. He’s even quoted Quaid’s ADC Mr Ata Rabbani, father of Raza Rabbani sahib, (May Allah bless both with long healthy life). He quotes Radio Pakistan’s record and also historian Ahmad Saeed’s book on Quaid’s visitors.
Instead of refuting it straightaway Kindly Do Some Research and Answer Safdar’s “opinion”. If not then whatever Najam has said is also opinion.
By the way the link you have given is that of an article by Ch. Fawad Hussain, an old and established protege of Musharraf, who is still trying to do the impossible task of bringing back that dictator at large. Fawad is one of the organizers of Musharrf’s yet-to-be-born All Pakistan Muslim League.
I request you and Najam to read Safdar’s article again and reply with historical records and arguments, NOT JUST MERE OPINION. Kindly save this website’s crediblityhttp://jang.com.pk/jang/jun2010-daily/06-06-2010/col4.htm

Watan Aziz says:

June 6th, 2010 3:39 pm

Maybe, the Urdu “dan” author of Jang needs to understand in Urdu what he fails to read and comprehend in English.

@Watan Aziz: I think you are still tackling the respond by Safdar by some other Pakistaniat commenter hence continue to exhibit your non serious attitude. Safdar might not be good at English like you btu it seems you lack to comprehend What Safdar wrote in “urdu”.

First of all you did not cite the source where you cited it, second it was Adil who claimed Azad came up with first Anthem.

Adnan Siddiqi says:

June 7th, 2010 5:01 am

Next time Adil Najam would repent to refer every other blog or person while discussing matter about partition/pre-partition and would come up with concrete respond to Dr.Safdar. As others are saying,it’s about the ‘credibility’ of the blog

Nihari says:

June 7th, 2010 9:47 am

@Adnan

I first started this discussion by quoting Dr. Mehmood’s article. The idea was to confirm fact and start a discussion. However after reading your and other takes on this matter, here are a few questions.

1. Let’s assume that Jinnah did ask Azad to write the anthem. Let’s assume that we did find facts about it. Why are you feeling so insecure about it?
2. How many biographies of Jinnah have you read?
3. How many speeches of the Quaid have you read
4. did you had the chance of reading the speech he gave to the Constituent Assembly on Aug 11, 1947. Do you know the most important para of that speech (No googling allowed. Just be honest)

And I am sorry. When I am typing fast I usually interchange the last two alphabets of my name so when you read comment by Nihair, it is good ol’ Nihari

Dastagir says:

June 8th, 2010 7:26 am

I have read the articles by Safdar Mahmood but there seems to be no new information in them. Just how he has failed to find any information. I hope he and also Adil Najam will look harder and find exactly what was the anthem from 1947 to 1954 (or 1950 when the music was selected). It does not matter much what it was, but it will be nice to know. Thank you to ATP for bringing this debate forward.

taash says:

July 8th, 2010 5:11 am

I have the original national anthem. Please let me know if anyone is interested in getting a copy through email or let me know if I can post it up on a website.

Aqeel Abbas Jafri says:

August 16th, 2010 2:40 pm

Pl. visit the following links to read some more findings on this issue:

National anthem: fact and fiction
For some time now, some secularists in Pakistan have been suggesting that (a) Jinnah was in favor of secularism, and therefore (b) he commissioned a Hindu poet to write the national anthem of Pakistan but it was replaced by the present anthem after Jinnah’s death.

Therefore, it is rather serendipitous that two well-researched books should come out at the same time, each addressing a different half of this statement separately (and both having long titles, but that is beside the point):
Secular Jinnah and Pakistan: What the Nation Doesn’t Know by the British Pakistani writer Saleena Karim is a 317-page study about whether Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be a secular state.
Pakistan Ka Qaumi Tarana: Kiya Hai Haqeeqat, Kya Hai Fasana by Aqeel Abbas Jafri is a 104-page analytical presentation of archival resources about the national anthem of Pakistan.
The first book is in English, and the second is in Urdu, and let’s begin with the second. Although he is little known abroad, Jafri ‘s name has become synonymous with archival research in Pakistan. One of his most recent crowning achievements is the Urdu Chronicle of Pakistan, which presents a chronological illustrated history of the country since 1947.

In Qaumi Tarana (allow me to refer to the book by this short title), Jafri shows with conclusive documentary evidence that:
Pakistan did not have a national anthem in the lifetime of Jinnah.
The present national anthem was the first to be officially adopted by the state.
There is no evidence to show that any poem by Jagan Nath Azad was played from radio on 14 or 15 August at all.
Some of the findings of this book were earlier shared by Jafri in his curtain-raiser article in Urdu press (covered here in a previous post, ‘Jafri reveals the truth’). The book offers much – much – more: a fantastic trip of time travelling to the early days of Pakistan, and inside the secret vaults of classified information, all in a light and refreshing manner.

I strongly recommend it to everybody. Being a basic document about a key symbol of our sovereignty, i.e. our national anthem, it should be kept in every household (Imagine losing your domicile certificate, passport, identity card and personal documents?). The book is modestly priced at Rs.200, which is roughly the same as a full plate of Biryani plus cold drink (and minus the TIP) – so, please do not “starve” your souls.

Now, very interestingly, while explaining that his purpose is just to keep the record straight, Jafri clarifies in the preface that it would not have been unexpected if the Quaid had actually got the national anthem written by a Hindu poet, but facts are facts and history needs to be respected. In the same vein he admits: “I do not have any doubts about Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah being secular, liberal and enlightened… Since Islam is the very name of tolerance.”

I do not understand what it means to say Pakistan did not have national anthem for first two years. May be it is a conspiracy policy to rob the glory from a Hindu poet….after all partition was meant Pakistan for Muslims and India for Hindus! But, thank God people of south Asia could not do even this small task and Muslims in India and Hindus in Pakistan are still a major ethnic problem. India is a boiling pot where hundreds of Pakistan may irrupt any moment.